How to copy and paste to the clipboard?

Coding Python Support
1

I can’t find a native way to copy and paste to and from the clipboard in bpy.
The method needs to be cross-platform so that it will work on all systems.

I’ve tried out the following :http://coffeeghost.net/2010/10/09/pyperclip-a-cross-platform-clipboard-module-for-python/

I’ve only tested it on Windows, but sometimes it just stops working, even if I shutdown blender, restart it, and then re-start my script which uses the module. I’m not sure if that happens because I reload my script at least 20 times an hour when I’m testing things.

Also, using ‘pyperclip’ means users would have to all install it in the modules folder.

Is there a better way?

2

text clipboard access is possible via bpy.context.window_manager.clipboard

http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_release/bpy.types.WindowManager.html?highlight=clipboard#bpy.types.WindowManager.clipboard

There’s also a relatively new feature to exchange blender data between multiple windows or scenes (blender internal clipboard), see Blender buffer copy/paste operators:
http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_release/bpy.ops.view3d.html?highlight=paste#bpy.ops.view3d.copybuffer
http://www.blender.org/documentation/blender_python_api_2_67_release/bpy.ops.view3d.html?highlight=paste#bpy.ops.view3d.pastebuffer

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3

Thanks,

If you only need to stay in bpy then that works better than pyperclip, which is good for general python scripts.

Also, if you need the formatting characters, like I do, for the pasted text then do this:

clipboard = bpy.context.window_manager.clipboard
       
#Encode text so it includes formating characters like a file read.
encoded = clipboard.encode('utf8')
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